In-Content Preferences Coming To Firefox 15

When the first time I heard about “In-Content Preferences” over at Mozilla Links, I didn’t understand anything about it. But after digging further, I found out that its a great new feature which is very common for Google Chrome users. Basically, Google Chrome displays its preferences as a regular Tab instead of opening a modal window, which Firefox and most other browsers including Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera does.

At present, in Firefox 13 stable channel, when you access Firefox Options (by clicking on Firefox Button > Options > Options), you get a new modal window for customizing your Firefox preferences. Now, the problem is you will not be able to interact with any open tabs in Firefox until and unless you close the Options window. But soon, starting with Firefox 15, Mozilla is changing the way Firefox Options is displayed with “in-content preferences.”

Starting with Firefox 15, the “preferences window” will open in a new tab with the help of in-content preferences. This will end the current modal window approach which blocks regular web browsing while you customize Firefox. Although according to the specs not every modal window are converted to tabs. For example, Firefox 15 still lists saved passwords in a modal window, and not in a tab according to in-content preferences.

How to enable Firefox display preferences in a tab instead of modal window?

You may get a prompt saying “This might void your warranty!” Click on the “I’ll be careful, I promise” button to continue.

Search for browser.preferences.inContent

Double-click on browser.preferences.inContent to set it to true.

The change should take effect immediately. Now, if you try to access Firefox Options, it will open up in a tab. Firefox 15 is expected to be released by August 28, 2012. If you want to see this for yourself, you can download Firefox Aurora 15 from here.